conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Lorica/Tenses
The Tenses Nouns are very closely related to verbs and adjectives in this language. For example, the word for the noun harm, nocea, is the same as the root of the verb (to harm), nocea and adjective (harmful) nocea, and is similar to past tense nocead. The last noun of a compound, or the last noun of a word with a prefix/suffix, ends in '-um' rather than '-a'. This is to distinguish between the noun and the modifiers that follow. So the obvious declaratory sentence 'harmful harm harms' translates as noceum nocea nocean, in the order of noun-adjective-indefiniteVerb. Adjectives and adverbs are treated as the same part of speech. noceum nocea nocean nocea translates as 'harmful harm harms harmfully'. A word such as "math teacher" becomes maestria numerum (teacher of numbers/math), quite different in meaning from maestrium numera (numbered teacher). Verb Tense All roots of verbs end in -a. Something is always added to the end to specify tense, so in practice only nouns and adjectives end in -a. This looks hard, but a lot of this you already know, and much of the rest is common sense. Let's work with the subject, I, me, and verb, to see / to look, vea. Then these are the tenses: *''me vean'' **This is the unsure tense. vean is also the indeterminate form. **This is the future tense, and is of course used for the future. So, me vean means "I will see it". **This is also the infinitive form. So, in "I like to see", we would use me vean for the "to see" part. Why? Because you aren't sure if you'll keep on seeing it. **The unsure tense is also used for subjunctive (really an issue in Spanish), imperfect subjunctive, and perfect subjunctive (?) tenses, such as "If I were to see it". Same rationale as above. **The unsure tense is also used for conditional, such as "if I went, I would see it". Same rationale. **The conditional perfect ("if it had been near, I would have seen it" also falls into this category because you still can't sure of it exactly, even though the situation has already passed. The conditional is identified by the presence of the "if" word. **In "I must have seen", when used alongside a partial loss of memory, we still use the unsure tense. **In predictions, the unsure tense is always used. *''me vead'' **Adding -d makes it the sure tense (past tense). **Past tense is used for what is commonly thought of as present tense. So, me vead means "I see it". The rationale is that by the time you could righteously say this statement, part of the event has already passed (even if it's still ongoing). **Past tense is also used for present perfect, since (a misnomer) it is generally past tense anyway. **Past tense is also used for the past tense (preterite and past imperfect in Spanish). So me vead also means "I saw it", whether it was for an instant or over a period of time. This is because the time period length does not have a particular cutoff. **Past tense is also used for the past perfect. This is because the order doesn't affect whether or not it was done in the past, and sometimes the two past events would overlap anyway. **In literature, the past tense is always used. *''me veas'', te veas, se veas **Adding -s makes it the imperative form. **For example, te veas means the order to "(you) see it!" **This is also used for the exhortative form (which is the imperative form directed at your own group ("let's"). However, the te is replaced by me So, me veas means "(let's) see it!" **This is also used for the indirect imperative form ("(let) him see it"). However, the te is replaced by se. So, se veas means "(let) him see it". Pseudo Tenses *''me dan vean'' **In "I should see" and "I should have seen", the "should" and "should have" are represented by another verb dan, while the "see" and "seen" are the forms me vean (infinitive) and me vead (past), respectively. So "I should see" becomes me dan vean while "I should have seen" becomes me dan vead. *''me nan vean'' **In "I must see" and "I had to see", the "must" and "nan to" are represented by another verb nan, while the "see" and "to see" are the forms me vean and me vead. So "I had to see" becomes me nan vean while "I had to see" becomes me nan vead. *''me ian vean'' **In "I want to see" and "I wanted to see", the "want to" and "wanted to" are represented by another verb ian, while the "see" is of the forms "me vean" (infinitive) and "me vead" (past), respectively. So "I want to see" becomes me ian vean while "I wanted to see" becomes me ian vead. *''veang''Pronounced ve-(ing) **Warning, these are 'gerund's, NOT verbs proper. **Gerunds are used as nouns. So here, veang means "seeing". **In the sentence structures "I like to see", "I wish to see", "I want to see", the "to see" parts are treated as gerunds. Footnotes Category:Lorica